A.N. The early part of this chapter was hell to write. I must've rewrote the first page and a half, two pages about a bajillion times trying to get it to sound right, and I still think I failed. Oh well.
Chapter V
Sarah paced eagerly back and forth, waiting for Eric to pick up. He couldn't be that far, could he…? A clicking noise.
"Hello?" Sarah said prematurely.
"Uh… please hold." It didn't sound like Eric on the other line; but rather, a deeper, husky voice. Another click, followed by a dial tone. However, Vixy recognized the voice.
"James?"
Eric looked up from his cell phone to the opened curtains. He was exposed, horribly exposed… then noticed something about who had opened the curtain. It had… fur.
The formal term was "anthropomorphic lion", but Eric just noticed the fur, the broad face and the mane. He stood taller than James' 5'9'' frame and stared at him with a look of utter contempt.
Eric stood up and pointed to the cell phone the lion had just taken from his hand and hung up with. "Can't a guy have a call in peace?" The lion's reply was swift and backhanded.
Reeling from the blow, Eric heard one of the voices in betwixt the crunching of what was probably James' jaw say, "Bring him here." A moment later, Eric was being grabbed by the immensely strong lion and thrown to his knees.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The deep, booming voice said. "And what are you doing on this planet? Only humans inhabit this planet."
Eric was about to say, "And your friend here?" But kept quiet as he observed quickly the situation. The one with the deep booming voice was dressed in commander attire and had a… tail?
Sure enough, this one was another fur, apparently, another lion. Eric looked around the room; save for maybe four humans, everyone in the room was a fur. He then noticed Uncle Sam and Tina. Sure enough, a crucifix was adorning a necklace around Tina's neck.
"Speak quickly!" The commander boomed. Eric stayed silent as, with one hand, started fiddling in his jacket for a certain plastic bag…
"Do you know who you are in the presence of?!" The commander bellowed. "I am General Dominic Mordrer, and you will speak!"
Almost there… Eric thought. "Does everyone here have a funky title like that?"
Eric wondered if Mordrer's face could go a deeper shade of purple through the mane. One of the few humans by Mordrer's side with a particular gangly look, a twinkle in his black eyes and a bright yellow Mohawk said goofily, "Aw, hell, man, I'm just Kharmouin-" and was interrupted as Mordrer elbowed him in the stomach.
"Won't speak?! Here then. Vitặs Mốrtĕs..." Mordrer began incanting.
There!
Kharmouin's eyes lit up. "He's got toys!" Instead of his happy-go-lucky grin that he had maintained up to now, his face went from grinning to worried in nanoseconds.
Eric threw down the ripped-open plastic bag, newly-tattered from James' claws, holding his breath and kicking off of Mordrer, pulling on Orion's mane to flip over him and land behind. Eric barely had time to bless James' acrobatic training when gray-green smoke smashed him in the face, totally overwhelming all senses. The pungent gas from Eric's home-made smoke globules was doing its job on the furs with extreme senses of smell, but it was nearly incapacitating to James, with his canine nose.
The usual plethora of cried comments from people who just had a hostage escaped clanged off room walls when somehow, upon falling over, Eric fell into the curtains. Lunging forward, he found the door and fell out, hacking to get the overpoweringly bitter fumes from his lungs. Still partially dizzy from the vapors, Eric halfheartedly spun around, pulling the aerosol can from his belt, and hit the nozzle.
Dark gray liquid sprayed from the top of the, solidifying in midair and sticking to the door. Eric froze, staring at the door, with the curiosity of every prodigious inventor… Did it work?
James forcibly snapped Eric out of it, telling him to twist the nozzle around and run like hell. Even sixty yards away, attempts to get the now-extremely stuck door open could be heard, and other doors could be heard opening. Running as fast as James' old legs would carry him, Eric aimed the twisted-nozzle can at the ground and fired.
This time, it was a light-gray mixture, and upon hitting the ground spread over the ground, like a sheet of ice growing on fast-forward. Eric jumped on the puddle and skidded along the ground. The light-gray liquid had the opposite effect; creating a near-frictionless environment to either skid at high velocities or keep foes on the ground. It took all of James' reflexes to stay on his feet.
Tseew!
An almost cartoonish bang sound, followed by a flash of red light arced past Eric, starting a small fire on a birch in the arc of fire. Just as Eric had almost gotten out of the parking lot, another Tseew! and a burning pain enveloped his abdomen. Gazing down, the familiar blaster shots had burned a hole in Eric's side. He fell to his knees.
The street was slanted downhill ever so slightly, and Eric, at the mercy of inertia, sprayed more of the slippery goo to continue the slide into the middle of the street.
Loud whirring sound…
Suddenly, James couldn't see, just blinding white light. The world started quaking all around him, and Eric could only barely make out the front bumper of an eighteen-wheeler. He rolled towards the curb and felt an ungodly jolt sweep him off the ground and drag him along the street.
Eric was dragged for almost an entire block before the as-then-unnoticed squeal of the brakes brought the truck to a halt. Eric hit the button on his wristband, changing back into his normal form and untangling the hood of his sweatshirt from the helper-stair that it had gotten caught on.
The door opened and a trucker with a mullet, trailer-mustache, burly limbs and a beer belly stepped onto the street and stared at a now-human and shoeless Eric Shroud. "Shit, kid!" He looked Eric up and down. Eric stole a glance at the theater, but it had fallen deathly silent. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Eric gave him a look that could kill. "I fell. Does it look like I'm okay?!"
The trucker looked him over. "The name's Karl. Hey, you need a ride anywhere? I'll take you, my way of saying 'please don't press charges.'"
A small grin played over Eric's face. Guess his race wasn't all bad… "Sure. That'd be great."
As he walked back around the truck to get in the passenger side, he caught a glimpse of the one with the yellow Mohawk. Kharmouin. His gaze was so intense that Eric could almost feel it search his soul.
The truck driver dropped Eric off roughly a block away from his house ("Sure you're okay?" "Yeah.") and started walking, trying to piece together the things he'd heard. Star Fox world? What were they smoking? And for Kharmouin's goofball behavior, something about him didn't sit well.
"I want you to head back to my home dimension," James commanded.
"It can't wait this time, can it?"
"No. We saw a lot those three years ago, and something's happening there. We go NOW."
"Suspected you'd say that. Well, we'd better get Sarah…"
Eric had no sooner opened the door when Sarah bounded into him, locking him in a worry-induced bearhug. "What happened?" Sarah said, concern in her eyes. She noticed his thrashed sweater. "Was there… a confrontation?"
"Not really. That came from my great escape, and it's going to take freaking forever to make those gas grenades again…"
"Eric, listen! I found this note in one of Sam's briefcases. Something's happening! And Vixy won't leave me alone about going back to the Star Fox world…"
Eric scanned the note, recounting what had happened to him in between paragraphs. He looked up at Sarah as he finished and headed back up to his room.
"Where are you going?" Sarah asked.
"I'm getting the sunglasses. There's something going on in the Star Fox universe, and we gotta go. We owe it to Fox, and you owe it to Jade. Wait a minute… yours are in Wisconsin, aren't they?"
"Well…" Sarah said meekly. "I brought them here… Just in case."
Eric grinned, the spark of adventure in his eye. Tiptoeing up the stairs as not to wake anybody, they crept into their rooms and emerged with the sunglasses. Sarah also had a familiar-looking armband. Looking at each other, they slowly slid it over their heads, concentrating on elements of three years past.
Fox McCloud.
Corneria.
Venom.
Andross.
All the colors around them bled into one, and when they faded, they were in a far different place.
Before they opened their eyes, it felt extremely hot. They didn't get transported to Titania… did they? Sarah and Eric both opened their eyes. Sarah recoiled in shock, Eric sunk to his knees as if he'd been struck in the gut.
"No… Noooo!"
They were in a countryside, but as far as appearances went, that was it. All the way to the horizon, it was ravaged. All over the place, it appeared as if the blight of death had struck every plant. Grass was shriveled and brown beneath their feet, and all the trees seemed to have long since lost their leaves. A straw village was on fire and slowly smoldering to the ground, and the stench of the dead was everywhere. Dead and dying Earthwalker triceratops dinosaurs lay on the ground in the village, entrails splattered over the ground in a horrid gore-fest.
"What… happened?" Sarah said. The image would forever be tattooed on the inside of her eyelids.
"This…" Eric couldn't get the words out. They started to form, but a bubble in his throat prevented him from speaking properly. "This… is where I first… touched ground in the Star Fox world… we're on Dinosaur Planet…" And with that, he dashed towards the village.
"Eric, wait!" Sarah called after him, but he was already out of immediate earshot. She started to race after him, then caught sight of the sky. Normally blue and peaceful, horrid yellow smog clouds blotted out all traces of Solar, the sun of Lylat. For a brief moment, a hole in the clouds appeared, and what appeared to be singing flames roared through the hole before the haze barrier prevented. She then turned and followed Eric down the hill. She could already hear him questioning the still living Earthwalkers, but without any luck at all. They all either eyed him with hatred, or shirked away from him like Dark Age peasants from lepers.
"What happened?" He repeated the question over and over to deaf ears. Sarah looked all around, but all she could see was wanton destruction. An oddly shaped yellow rock caught her attention.
She kneeled down to inspect it with trembling hands as screaming, fire and death raged through her ears. It felt nowhere near as hard or rough as a rock… and there were jagged edges on one side, but none on the other. Blood covered one side.
"Can I have a sniff?" Vixy asked. Sarah answered by pressing the button of her armband, and felt the Novocain feel of her body reshaping to Vixy's appearance.
With the heightened lupine senses, Vixy took a whiff, and stopped to think. "This happened no more than two days ago. I can't get any scents off stone itself… but the blood… Oh my god…"
Eric stopped shouting long enough to notice Sarah had turned into Vixy. He turned to her direction. "What's going on?"
"The smell of blood… I recognize it…" Her face became as ghostly pale as is noticeable with fur.
"Well, who's it to?" Eric said, eyes darting nervously around the chaos-torn landscape.
Eric followed Vixy's gaze as she stared at a figure just leaning out of a straw house. An azure, lumpy pile of bloody feathers lay in the doorway. Vixy immediately ran towards the door.
"Falco!" Vixy cried. Eric stumbled, then proceeded to help Vixy lift Falco's body up. Horrid amounts of blood had soaked the nearby ground, and a peice of his beak had gotten broken off by something. Eric choked on his own breath, then tried again.
"Is he…?"
"No. Almost. We have to get him medical care!" Sarah cried out, then tried carrying him, before Eric shouted out.
"Don't try to move him, it may aggravate something!" He cried out, not realizing the situation.
"Eric, he'll die if he stays here," Sarah said with deathly calm.
Eric sighed and helped to slowly ease Falco over their shoulders. "I have an idea, an extraordinarily stupid idea, but it's all I have. We need to get him to my dad."
Eric's father was a physician at Las Angeles hospital who shared Eric's adaptability to strange situations.
"Take him home? But what about the other guests…"
"They're leaving in two days. And there's no other way," Eric said with finality.
"Survivors!" An unfamiliar voice shouted.
On the horizon, several dark shapes were starting to come out of the nearby woods.
"No time. We have to go!" Eric said quickly. Sarah stepped back and removed her shades as Eric, arm around Falco, took his off.
When the color whirlwind subsided, they found themselves back at Eric's house, an unconcsious being supported by the two of them. In the dead silence of the bottom floor the labored breathing of the avian between them could be heard.
Without a word, they took Falco upstairs. Sarah took Falco into Eric's bedroom and lay him on the bed. Eric went off to find some towels and the first-aid kit, as Sarah hurried to alert Eric's father, Steve Shroud. She knocked softly on the door. No response. She tried again.
A muffled moan came from beyond the door. "Mr. Shroud?"
"What...?" Was the grumpy-sounding reply.
"Can you come out? This is an emergency..." Sarah asked.
"What's going on?" Maria's voice asked.
"I'll be right out..." Steve said.
An agonizingly long two minutes later, Steve emerged from the door. Steve Shroud was a slightly husky man in his mid-forties. Besides brown eyes and a large build, nearly all physical characteristics were inherited by Eric, right down to the nigh-uncontrollable near-black hair.
"What's the problem?"
"Have you seen Jade yet?"
"Listen, you and Maria may have taken her into your hearts,-" Sarah's face fell as she thought that the prejudice shown by Karen and Tina would begin to spew out of Steve's mouth, "-But she needs to be tested. Foreign life forms can have all kinds of communicable diseases-"
Sarah interrupted him. "Listen, we need you to help treat someone, but he's someone like Jade..."
"Wait a minute, like-" Steve was stopped when he caught a glimpse of Falco's battered body. "What the...?"
"Will you treat him?"
"Where'd he come from?"
"Never mind that. Will you look after him and get him healthy again?"
Eric interrupted, coming back up the stairs. "I got some towels, blankets and the first-aid kit. Oh, hey, dad."
"What the hell is going on here?!" Steve demanded.
"Look. This guy is a friend of ours, and where he comes from, things are not going very well at all."
"I know this is going to be difficult for a man of science to accept, Mr. Shroud," Sarah said gently. "But in a world beyond ours, we need to set things right."
Steve looked at Eric, then Sarah, then Falco, as if fighting a battle with his soul. "Please?" Sarah peeped.
Steve frowned. "Alright."
"And you can tell mom and Phil, but don't tell anyone else, ESPECIALLY Sam and Tina. In fact, don't let anyone else in my room, dad," Eric said with more authority than he was used to commanding.
"Mr. Shroud, we are going to have to go away for a bit. I don't know for how long, but we have to right some wrongs. Don't worry for us, Mr. Shroud. We'll make it. And please, look after Jade, I don't want her exposed to what we may be exposed to."
Steve stared at Falco for a good long while. Finally he said, "How urgent is this?"
"Pretty damn," was Eric's reply. "Are you going to fix him up?"
"Alright. Is there anything else that I need to know?" Steve asked.
"No. Just look after yourself. And remember, DON'T LET SAM OR TINA IN." Sarah said firmly.
Steve stood by Falco's side for over an hour, and finally he said, "Okay, he's stable. I'll try to moniter him later, but it'll be hard without equipment from work."
"Oh yeah. Don't let other people like work people know about this either." Eric muttered.
With Falco safe, Sarah went to her bed, and Eric slept in a sitting-position guarding the door.
Sarah tossed and turned throughout the night. Nightmares kept returning, images of Dinosaur Planet in it's horror-wracked state, always ending with an image of a bloodshot eye of a massacared Earthwalker, staring into the beyond even as the eye itself could not see. Sarah bolted awake to hear Vixy whispering softly into her mind.
"You may not always like what becomes of worlds, but all things can be changed in time. What you have to do is discern what you want to do with the time that is given to you."
Slightly calmed by Vixy's words, Sarah sank into a dreamless sleep.
